


The Boy Behind The Bar

by SereneCalamity



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Architect Castiel, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Sexual Tension, bartender!Dean, tattooed!dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 11:54:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5584470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel might be developing a little bit of a crush for the bartender. Destiel. OneShot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy Behind The Bar

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot was inspired by a tumblr of Dean as a bartender with tattoo's up his arms. I don't know who the original artist is, sorry, but it's absolutely incredible.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, only the story and any mistakes.

"Come on, Cassie!" Gabriel Speight pouted. "I want to go out! I want to have fun!"

"Then go," Castiel Novak rolled his eyes over at Gabriel, who was standing by their front door. "I'm not stopping you."

"Actually, you are," Gabriel shot right back. "I can't go out and have a good time if I know that my best friend is back home, completely bored out of his mind, doing _work_ on a Friday night! What kind of person would I be?!"

"Okay, one? I'm not bored," Castiel stated calmly, not looking at all bothered by Gabriel's dramatic behaviour. "And two; I need to finish all of this within the next week. I like my job, and if I want to keep working there, I kind of need to do what my boss asks. That's how a working relationship _works_."

"Or slavery," Gabriel muttered. Castiel finally glanced over at him and rolled his eyes, a small grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. "Just come out for one drink, okay? We can just go to the bar down the street. One drink, and then you can come right back home, and be the boring architecture you're going to regret being when you're forty years old and you realize that your whole life has past you by." Castiel let out a laugh and shook his head.

"One drink?" He confirmed and Gabriel's eyes widened.

"To start with, at least," he grinned.

"No, Gabe," Castiel muttered. "One drink. Then I really need to come home." Gabriel didn't look as though he heard, still just grinning like an idiot, but then he had a way of only hearing what he wanted too. Castiel left his drawings spread out on the kitchen table and went to his room, changing out of his sweatshirt and comfortable hoodie, and into a pair of jeans and a light blue button down shirt that matched his eyes. When he came out, Gabriel was all ready, dressed in a coat and almost bouncing with excitement by the door. "One drink," Castiel reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah," Gabriel grinned and tossed his arm around Castiel's shoulders, pulling him out the door with him. Castiel wasn't too sure about this, but Gabriel was always asking him to go out with him for drinks and with his friends, but Castiel was so wrapped up in his work that he never really had time. But Gabriel was his best friend, and he was right, he needed to focus a little more on having fun.

At least one drink of fun.

"Okay, so, let's start with some shots," Gabriel announced as they walked into the crowded bar. Castiel instantly wanted to turn on his heel and leg it out of there as he was jostled by a couple of drunk people. He hated crowds, and he especially hated being around _drunk_ crowds. But Gabriel's arm had tightened like a vice around his neck and was dragging him toward the bar at the back of the room. There were a couple of spaces open and they quickly snagged them. "Tequila?"

" _Gabe_ ," Castiel groaned.

"How about Midori? That's a pretty little drink for a man who drinks like a seventeen year old girl," Gabriel teased. Castiel rolled his eyes and fixed him with the resting bitch face look that he had perfected over the years. "Hey! Dude!" Gabriel threw up his arm to get the attention of the lanky looking bartender at the other end of the bar, currently attempting to hit on a red-headed and failing completely. Castiel wasn't the smoothest guy around, but even he could see that the guy wasn't going to get anywhere with the girl.

"Hi, man," the guy came ambling down the bar and gave them a wide grin. "What can I get you two?"

"I'll just get a beer," Castiel quickly said, not trusting Gabriel to order for him.

"And I'll get a whiskey," Gabriel ordered.

"Rightio, boys! Coming right up!" The man turned around to ring up the order when there was a rough voice that caught his attention.

"Garth!" Castiel couldn't help but glance to see where the younger boy had turned his head to look at. He blinked as he saw another man.

A damn _gorgeous_ man.

With this incredible lop sided grin, glowing green eyes, wearing a pair of jeans that perfectly hugged his lower half and a flannel shirt that was rolled up to his elbows, showing off tattoos all over his arms. Castiel wasn't usually into the whole tattoo's thing, but he was into hot guys with smiles that looked as though they could make someone melt when they fixed on them.

This night suddenly became a whole lot more bearable.

* * *

"Yo, Garth! Go on your break, man," Dean Winchester said, looking across at the younger man. Garth Fitzgerald IV was this scrawny kid who only meant the best, but he managed to mess things up almost every step of the way. He was the friend of a friend—well, friend of kind of Dean's surrogate father, Bobby Singer. So when Bobby said that Garth needed a job, Dean had happily given him one.

"You sure, man?" Garth bounded over to him like an over excited puppy, staring up at him from underneath the rim of the baseball cap that he never seemed to take off. "I can keep going, it's no problem—"

"Go for a break, Garth," Dean repeated, his deep voice a little firmer this time, with a pointed raise of his eyebrows. Garth shrugged, and then nodded.

"Great, great," he grinned. "I might go check out those filly's over there," he nodded over to a group of girls who were _far_ out of his league. Dean glanced over at them, a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth and then shrugging.

"Sure thing, man. Knock yourself out," he clapped a hand down on Garth's shoulder and then quickly caught his collar before he ran off. "You don't have any orders you need me to finish off?"

"Oh, just those two over there," Garth jerked his head over his shoulder, toward the end of the bar. "They haven't paid yet—want a beer and a whiskey."

"Aight," Dean nodded and then headed over to the make the drinks. He pushed them across the counter without really looking up and run the order up on the till. "You two paying together or separate?" He asked, finally lifting his head to look over the wooden bar at the two men sitting at the booth. The guy right in front of him was a regular, he saw him in here quite a bit—think his name was Gabriel. But the guy next to him...Dean was pretty sure he would have remembered that face if he had seen him in here before. He had gorgeous mussed up hair—practically sex hair—and these incredible blue eyes. He quickly shook his head and realized that the first guy was actually saying something. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said I'll cover it," he smirked at him. Dean nodded, forcing himself not to spare the blue eyed man a second look as he took the credit card and swiped it, waiting for the transaction to go through before handing it back.

"You boys have a good night," Dean nodded at them both again, only letting his eyes rest for a moment longer on the second man, who was chewing down nervously on his reddened lower lip and looking even more attractive, before walking back down the bar to serve another customer. It was a Friday night, and it only got busier as the night went on, but Dean couldn't stop himself from looking down the bar every time he could to look at the man. Around half past ten, he heard him get called Cas, and he wondered what it was short for. Gabriel was clearly the more out going one out of the pair, getting on with the men who were at the pool table, and starting a game with a couple of them. Cas looked as though he wanted to be anywhere but in the bar, but he stayed. "Can I get you anything else?" Dean asked him about an hour later, noting that he still hadn't finished the beer in front of him.

"Oh yes, uh, I..." he squinted adorably up at the black board behind Dean, where the drinks were listed in Deans scrawl of handwriting. "A coke?"

"Jack and coke?" Dean confirmed.

"No, like...Just coke," Cas's cheeks reddened slightly and Dean couldn't help but stare at him, a little disbelievingly.

"You come to my bar, you don't finish your beer, and then you order a coke?" He teased lightly.

"Oh, I—I didn't mean to offend you!" Cas looked genuinely horrified that he might have insulted Dean and Dean couldn't help but grin gently at him. Cas looked confused and then managed a sheepish smile. "I'm not really much of a drinker."

"Neither am I," Dean confided him as he took half a step back and reached into the refrigerator under the bar and pulled out a can of coke. "I mean, I used to be, but then I guess things just changed and I kind of stopped."

"And so you work in a bar?" Cas pulled out his wallet as Dean poured the coke into a tall glass and stuck a straw in it.

"So I _own_ a bar," Dean corrected him as he passed him the drink. He saw the way Cas's eyes widened slightly in appreciation and Dean couldn't help but enjoy the way he was looking at him. "Anyway, it's on the house," he waived away Cas's card.

"Are you sure?"

"Well," Dean tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "What's your name? Your full name—what's Cas short for?" Cas looked surprised by the question, and he swallowed hard before answering.

"Castiel."

"Castiel," Dean nodded and then held out his hand over the counter. "Dean. Dean Winchester." Castiel rewarded him with a lop sided smirk and squeezed his hand slightly as he shook it.

* * *

Castiel kept going back to the bar with Gabriel. He never drunk much, sometimes he only ordered coke or sprite, but every Friday night for the last month, he kept going back. Dean was always there, and he was always grinning. There was a couple times in there when Castiel felt as though Dean's grin just got bigger when he was serving him, but he knew that he was just telling himself that to make him feel better.

Dean was this gorgeous hunk of a man who had almost every man and woman in this bar tripping over themselves to get his attention. He had this panty-dropper smile and this rough, sexy voice and Castiel could honestly go on for days about how fucking amazing the mans arms were. He almost always wore flannel shirts, rolled to the elbow, so that his tattooed forearms were on display and his biceps were stretching the material. There was one night when Garth, the clumsy other bartender, had tripped over and spilt a pint of beer all down his shirt. Dean had rolled his eyes and shook his head but stripped off the shirt he was wearing, serving in only a white wife-beater until he took a break and then ducked out to get a clean shirt.

Castiel was literally going home and dreaming about this man, it was ridiculous.

He had always kept his head about people that he had a thing for; he was as level headed as he was with everything else in his life. But this guy had him going on _every Friday night_ to a bar where he barely even drank, and he then had to stay up even later to try and keep up with his work load.

He learned some things about Dean, in the stolen moments that they got at the bar. Dean had inherited the bar from his father, John Winchester, when he had passed away a few years ago. It was actually meant to be for both Dean and his brother, Sam Winchester, but his younger brother had wanted to go off to Stanford University to become a lawyer. The two boys were close, and Dean supported his brother going off, taking over the bar with the help of a family friend, Bobby, and then Garth more recently.

Castiel told him about how he was an architect, and had finished his degree almost a year ago, and was working for one of the firms in the city. His room mate, Gabriel, hadn't actually finished a degree at University, and jumped between jobs, never really staying at one for very long. Dean asked at one point if he and Gabriel were more than room mates, to which Castiel had responded no, Gabriel was into woman. He pointedly hadn't said that he was, and Dean obviously picked up on the distinction in his words, because his eyes raised, but he didn't say anything further about it.

But that was it.

Maybe they were friends, but that would probably be a stretch.

Dean talked to a lot of his customers. He was like Gabriel—he got on with everyone, and everyone liked him back. He had that natural charm about him that put people at ease.

Castiel was the opposite of that.

He was awkward, and generally didn't like being around more than one or two people at a time.

Dean didn't make him feel that way though.

He didn't interrupt him when he stuttered, or was searching for something to say. And he didn't look like he was in a rush to get away when they were talking, always fixing him with those gorgeous green eyes as though he was the most important person in the bar...In the world, actually.

Castiel had to keep telling himself, though; Dean was just being nice. He was just being friendly. It was his _job_ to act this way, because he worked in a customer service environment.

But that didn't help the fact that he was quickly falling for him.

* * *

It was nearly six weeks since Castiel had first come into his bar, and he had come back every Friday since. Dean had tried not to come onto him too strong, giving him free drinks and asking him the inconsequential questions like how his week had been or how he was doing. Sometimes they branched out from there, and Dean found himself telling Castiel about Sammy and the bar, and Castiel told him about his job and Gabriel. Dean had managed to ask him casually if he and Gabriel were together, although after watching them for a few weeks, he had come to the conclusion already that they weren't, given Gabriel hit on woman left, right and centre. But Castiel had answered the way Dean had hoped, confirming that he was gay, or in the very least, bisexual.

Dean was feeling tired, given he had worked almost everyday for the past three weeks, including the Sunday, even though the bar was closed on Sundays, doing inventory and giving the bar a good clean down. Garth had been all too willing to help, but Dean definitely needed a break from the mans endless chatter. He meant well, but he could get a little tiring. But it was Friday night, and even though Sam was on holiday from Uni at the moment and was helping out at the bar, Dean insisted that he work tonight. Sam hadn't sounded too convinced on the phone, but had just said that that he would see him on Saturday.

Sure enough, it rolled on nine o'clock and Castiel came inside, following after Gabriel. He always still came in with this apprehensive look on his face, his eyes darting from side to side as he attempted to make his way to the bar without bumping into anyone. He had his usually jeans on today, along with a dark coloured tee-shirt, which clung to his arms and taunt torso.

"Are we going coke or sprite today?" Dean teased Castiel lightly as he sat down at the bar, and Castiel grinned over at him, the nervousness in his eyes quickly lifting as he met Dean's eyes.

"Beer," he answered.

"Ooh, wow," Dean wiggled his eyebrows. "Someone's branching out tonight."

"Yeah, yeah," Castiel's lop-sided smile was back as he automatically reached for his wallet, but Dean shook his head, just like he always did. "You know, I could take advantage of this hospitality. Drink this whole bar under the table."

"Yeah, right," Dean laughed. "I'm pretty sure I'm safe from you drinking me out of house and home."

"I find your lack of faith in my drinking skills disappointing," Castiel pouted.

"Quite on the contrary," Dean rested his hands against the bar and tilting his head t the side. "I think it's cute."

"Cute?"

"Cute," Dean confirmed with another grin. Castiel felt his stomach do the little flip-flop thing that it did pretty much whenever he was around the bartender. Dean poured him a beer and passed it over the counter. He looked as though he was about to say something, when a man came over to him and threw an arm around his shoulder, jerking him away from the counter and into a one armed hug. Dean looked surprised and then let out a laugh as he turned to face him. "Dude! I thought you weren't going to be back until tomorrow!"

"I still wanted to see you, jerk," the other man replied with a grin and a light punch to the arm.

"I can't believe you came early—it's been, what, almost five weeks since I've seen you!" Castiel watched the exchange and swallowed hard, suddenly feeling a whole lot more down that he had a few minutes ago. It was clear that these two were close, there was an air of familiarity surrounding them and the taller man still had his arm wrapped around Dean's shoulder. Even though he was taller, he looked younger, and especially with the way his short hair sort of curled around his face. Castiel dropped his eyes down to the beer in front of him and contemplated just making a break for the door, but then Dean turned back to him, still grinning widely.

"Hey, Cas," he began. "You remember me telling you about my little brother? This is him, this is Sammy."

"Oh," Castiel blinked, his blue eyes big and round. "Oh, right. Hi," he turned to look at Sam Winchester, who was giving him a welcoming smile, and suddenly looked a whole lot more attractive than he had a few seconds ago when Castiel thought that maybe they were together.

"Hey! Castiel, right?" He reached out to shake his hand. Castiel gripped his hand and wondered exactly how Sam knew his name, given Dean had only said his nickname. "Um, are you sure that you don't want me to cover the rest of your shift? I totally don't mind," Sam glanced over at him brother, his eyebrows raised as though there was some conversation going on between them that Castiel wasn't involved in.

"Uh," Dean looked uncertain, taking a look around the bar before pursing his lips and then finally resting his eyes on Castiel. He gave him a tentative half smile. "Did you want to come back to my place? I have coke," he sounded hopeful, and he looked nervous as he shoved his hands into his front pockets. It was almost comical, the way he was buff and almost rugged with his few days of stubble on his face and the tattoo's covering his arms, and he looked _nervous_ as he asked Castiel back to his place.

But then Castiel realized what was happening.

Dean was asking him back to his place.

Almost like a date?

"Sure," Castiel answered before he even really had time to process what he was saying. Dean looked surprised at the answer but then he grinned and looked over at his brother. Sam did that thing with his eyes again, as though they were communicating silently, and then smiled over at Castiel.

"I'll see you around," Sam told Castiel.

"It was nice meeting you," Castiel told Sam before sliding off his booth. He wondered if he was meant to take his drink, and how far away Dean's apartment was. But Sam was already picking his glass up and taking it away, so he just hesitantly waited for Dean. Dean was saying something to Garth and then pointing over to Sam. Garth and Sam looked as though they knew each other, so Castiel guessed that Dean was letting the younger man know that he was taking off for the night. Then Dean looked over at Castiel with a hopeful smile and came around to his side of the counter.

"You ready?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Castiel glanced over his shoulder to look toward the pool table where Gabriel was trying to pick up a blonde haired girl. He wasn't sure if he should let him know that he was leaving, but then he didn't want to jinx things. There was a good chance that he was over thinking all of this and Dean was just being friendly about this.

Although...Back to his place...On a Friday night...It didn't really sound like he could be taking it any other way.

"Wait, where are we going?" Castiel questioned as they walked through a door marked Staff Only and started going up a flight of stairs. Dean reached the top and then opened another door, looking over his shoulder to Castiel.

"Uh, this is my place," he admitted with a bit of an embarrassed laugh. Castiel raised an eyebrow and then let out a laugh. "I know, I know, it's not so great, but it came with the bar, and it's easy to get to."

"No, I think it's cute," Castiel told him. He stepped into the apartment behind Dean and looked up and down the short hallway. It was simple, looked like a typical guys apartment, with some shoes in a messy pile by the door and nothing on the walls.

"I don't know if I appreciate you calling my manly apartment cute," Dean muttered, but he flashed another grin over his shoulder as he disappeared into the next room. Castiel kicked off his shoes and then followed after him, raising his eyebrows as he walked into the lounge. It was an improvement over the hallway, with a nice lounge suite, a mahogany coffee table, a book shelf in the corner and a wide screen TV. There were two photos on top of the book shelf; one of a very young looking Sam and Dean with who Castiel assumed was their parents, and then one of just Sam and Dean, that looked like is was taken a few years ago, maybe more recently. "You just want a coke? Or you still feeling all adventurous with your beer?" Dean interrupted Castiel's snooping and he snapped his eyes toward the other man with a slightly guilty grin.

"A beer," Castiel said and Dean nodded, walking into the next room and then coming back with two beers, handing one over to Castiel. They stood close to each other, sipping from the bottles and giving each other awkward side looks. "So, uh...How longs your brother back for?"

"Just the weekend," Dean told him. "He's on a two week break, but he's going away with his girlfriend Jess next week. It's her birthday and, um, he's actually going to propose to her." Castiel's eyes widened.

"Oh, really? That's amazing!"

"Yeah, yeah, it is," Dean grinned. "He's the, well, he's the traditional one in our family. He got straight A's in the school, went on to do a law degree and is getting engaged to his high school sweetheart. I was a little bit..." he laughed. "I dropped out of school when I was sixteen and travelled. Didn't even come back until about two years ago, when dad was sick." The smile dropped off his face and Castiel guessed that going down the path of his father becoming sick probably wasn't going to be the best date night conversation.

Because that's what he was determined to view this as.

A date night.

So he was going to steer the conversation back in that direction.

"Have you talked about me to Sam?" Castiel asked, quickly swallowing his nervousness by taking another drink of beer. Dean choked on his mouthful of beer in an extremely un-smooth fashion that made Castiel grin. "It's just...You called me 'Cas', but he knew my full name."

"I might have mentioned you," Dean muttered, walking over to the couch and turning on the TV. Castiel bit down on his lower lip and smiled, following after him and sitting down at the other end of the couch. Dean flicked through the channels mindless for a few minutes before he took a deep breath and turned the volume down, looking over at Castiel. "Actually I mentioned you more than once or twice," he admitted, his fingers drumming against his knee. "You think I give out free drinks to every hot guy who sits at my bar?" This time it was Castiel's turn to almost choke on his drink.

"You think I'm hot?" The question came out before he could stop it, and it sounded pretty pathetic when he said it out loud. But Dean just gave him this sexy half smirk and nodded his head. "Why didn't you ever say something?"

"Well it's kind of hard to ask a guy out on a date when you work literally every day," Dean made a face. "Sorry. This was kind of the best I could do."

"No, no—this is good! This is great, actually!" Castiel tripped over his words. "I mean, I kind of freak out on dates and make a fool of myself, so this is good—wait! So this is a date?" His eyebrows were raised as he faced Dean, and the other man grinned at him, nodding a couple of times. "Right," Castiel forced himself to stop babbling as he tightened his fingers around the beer bottle. Dean reached over and took the bottle from him, gently untangling it from his grasp and putting it on the coffee table, next to his own drink. Castiel breathed out shakily as Dean turned and put his hand on Castiel's knee and squeezed it gently, before leaning it to kiss him softly on the mouth.

Castiel could have groaned at the pressure against his lips.

Dean felt very much the same way.

He pulled back and licked his lips nervously.

"Is this...Cool?" Dean asked.

"Cool?" Castiel couldn't help but grin at the use of words. "Yes, this is cool." Dean grinned back, his gorgeous green eyes dancing as he cupped Castiel's cheek and pulled him back into him. Their lips came together again and this time, it last longer. Castiel's mouth was soft and pliant against Dean's, and Dean's breath caught in his throat as he slid his tongue inside Castiel's waiting mouth. It was the complete opposite of what Castiel was expecting from a man like Dean; it was gentle and smooth and unrushed. And apart from sliding his hand down to grip his neck, he didn't try to touch anywhere else. Castiel felt his whole body tingling as though every nerve was aware of Dean's touch, and when Dean pulled away, he knew that his whole face was flushed. Dean stared at him for a second before breaking out in that adorable grin and touching his thumb lightly to the corner of Castiel's lips.

"You want to watch a movie?" He asked, gesturing toward the TV. Castiel blinked and jerked his head in a quick nod. Dean flicked through his Netflix before finding something and settling back on the couch, sliding an arm comfortably around Castiel. Castiel leaned into him, a dopey smile on his face before he quickly looked at Dean out of the corner of his eye.

"So this was a date, right?" He checked. Dean laughed and reached out to grab his bottle of beer, his arm still firmly around Castiel.

"This is a date."

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you guys think!


End file.
